Al-Rayan

Alright, our server was incredibly nice. Other than that, I have nothing positive to say. It’s weird in there. It’s small and seems dirty. There was a lady sitting on the floor behind the counter talking. At first I thought I was just hearing voices until I went to pay and she popped up to take my money. Weird. Also, they sell random things there, like makeup and deodorant. The hummus was alright, nothing to write home about though. The pita was not freshly made and was not good. The falafel was OK, but also didn’t seem fresh. I got the falafel sandwich. There was a piece of plastic in it. Not happy. Won’t return.

Great authentic middle eastern food. Portions were generous, and service was great too! Will come back next time I visit Memphis!

Went here not knowing what I was getting into. It was around 7pm and I was the only person there. I was motioned to have a seat anywhere. The waitress was quiet and clearly didn’t speak a great deal of English. I asked for whatever is her favorite thing on the menu.
The salad was fresh and crisp and was tasty… Then came the humis and bread that was tasty even though the bread was not fresh. But the main course was brought out and it appeared to be rolled up sausage and grilled. It reminded me of dog feces in appearance and actually did not taste much different.
It just wasn’t a good experience… No interaction was made with me by the staff… Just not good.

AMAZING.
My new favorite middle eastern place. It’s a total dive, hole in the wall, and has a lot of atmosphere. It feels like stepping into a different world somehow.
The coffee is super extreme, hardcore, badass and it is super caffeinated… I would describe it as «Expresso on crack». I don’t think I will be sleeping tonight, and I love it! It comes in something kind of like a shot glass– and a little metal pourer. The tea is aromatic, calming and absolutely delicious. Flowery and spicy. They have free refills on that. I normally hate tea. I loved this.
The buffet is delicious. The service is so friendly. I also had chicken schwarma and beef schwarma sandwiches and falafel. That falafel was literally made on the spot for us. Super fresh, amazing prices. Go.

Mid Town meet Mid Eastern.
This is the only falafel game in the neighborhood at the moment and they are churning out some tasty spicy business!
My first time here, I placed my order and stood nervously in the doorway wondering who actually uses the hookah area (I decided against passing the time wandering around outside as daylight was fading and the rest of this strip mall is a paycheck loan place and nail salon). There was no one in the restaurant except the cooks who were friendly, but not very talkative. It smells wonderful in here!
The décor is minimal, a few tables sit under buzzing florescent light fixtures, not a date night place but a suberb choice for takeout.
We tried a bunch of stuff, falafel, shawarma, hummus, tabbouleh, all aces!
One dark moment, I bit into something hard in my shawarma and spit half my tooth out, but even that couldn’t dampen my enthusiasm for this meal. Everything was fresh and delicious and I suffered through with ½ my molar gone.
In the end, this meal put me back $ 900 in dental bills, but I’ll be back! (That tooth was going to fall apart anyhow).
It’s cash only, but I don’t recommend strolling down to that Regions bank ATM after dark.

Great prices, friendly service and low key. I had the beef shawerma sandwich and hot tea. Both were delicious! Great little place for a quick lunch.

om nom nom nom.
Let me be clear. This is not a place to go to if you’re expecting high class insofar as aesthetics go. This is a place to go if you want to eat some absolutely astoundingly good food.
There are only ever two ladies that work here, so you won’t see your waitress as much as you may like, but they are both very polite, and very attentive to making sure you’re happy. The Falafel is one of my favorites in town, the hummus is scrumptious and the hot sauce they put on their sandwiches is fantastic. Make sure you get the hot tea to go with your meal, it is absolutely worth it.
I try to get out here at least 2 – 3 times a month. Remember it is cash only, but oh man is it fantastic.

I come here frequently and the food is some of the best that I have found in Memphis. I have never come for the buffet but I often come for dinner and enjoy all that they have to offer. As a vegetarian, I often get the falafel plate, which is more food than I could ever eat and very cheap.
The falafel is the best that I have ever had and the hummus and sauces (garlic, tahini, sriracha) that they provide are delicious. This dish also comes with a salad which is pretty basic, but has a delicious, restaurant-​made dressing/​spices mix. They also serve free mint tea which is amazing and I have to stop myself from getting too much. They also have free cookies and often give extra items if they recognize you as a regular.
The restaurant doesn’t have a great deal of ambiance, and the only décor are random items along the walls and a couch/​rug section for big parties to sit at. However, to me, it adds to the charm. The service is always great and the owners are extremely friendly. All in all this is a great, underrated location that I would suggest to anyone.

Food wasn’t as appetizing as I thought it would be. Falafel tasted burnt and not like the falafel overseas. Pretty expensive

It has been years since I have eaten at Al Rayan. There is a new owner with whom I had the pleasure of speaking with. She is from Yemen but lived a long while in Saudia Arabia. There was only one other worker there who served me and was quite courteous and accommodating. The food is improved over the previous proprietors. I ordered meze (appetizers) which can come separately or in combinations of 2 or 3. I chose the baba ghanoush, grape leaves, and the fried cheese (no mozzarella here!) they were served with warm pita. The baba ghanoush was creamy but with deliberate chunks for texture and seasoned to perfection. The grape leaves were firm and served cold over little salad with vinegar and oils and the fried cheese was incredible! I don’t know what kind of cheese perhaps a goat cheese but pan seared and just a rich yummy saltiness which was very pleasing. I also tried the falafel sandwich. The falafel was the best I have had! Not the little flattened meatball shaped falafel I am accustomed to in this area but big fluffy perfectly fried honest to goodness get every crumb delicious! I highly recommend sampling the hot tea! It is spiced with cloves and some other distinctive spices and is the absolute perfect accompaniment to the middle eastern cuisine! I cannot wait to do breakfast! And try the buffet! Overall the place is a little outdated but it fits in very nicely as perfect midtown experience!

The only reason I am not giving this place a 5 star is because of the ambiance and the place needs a little work updating.
Other than that the place is awesome. The service is great and the food are delish.
The first time I ordered a take out; it was great. I took my wife and son tonight and it was the same; the food is super great and the service was good. I had the Al-​Ryan special, it had everything. It had kofti (ground rolled beef), grilled chicken, shawarma beef, grilled lamb, awesome rice, salad, pita bread, humus, 3 different type of sauces, and the best «dogome» falafel I ever had. It was home made!!! The wife had the lamb kabob with all the fixings and my son had the beef shawarma plate with also all the fixings. Did I told you their falafel is awesome. I actually felt kind of heathy after eating it.
Anyway like I said earlier, the place needs a little work but please do not let that stop you from trying their awesome food, especially the falafel. Take it to go.
Oh I forgot the most important thing, it is easy on the wallet. One of this days I have to make it there for lunch because they put out a delicious buffet.

Al Rayan is small yet wonderful. It was so good, my coworkers and I came back here twice!
I ordered the Chicken Kabob Combo special. Everything was wonderfully tasty– the meat was juicy, the rice delicious. I topped it off with some garlic sauce and couldn’t be happier. The pepper sauce it came with was also delicious.
On my next visit, I did the lunch buffet. This too was amazing! A co-​worker said the lamb was great although I didn’t personally try it. I went for the chicken, rice, chili sauce, and some soup. I left stuffed and full of happy feelings.
The hummus and pita bread was good one day but not so great the next time. Perhaps there was too much lemon? I’m not sure what it was, but there’s some room for improvement there.

I was not expecting very much when I arrived at the Al-​Rayan. That being said, the food was just okay and the service was pretty much non-​existent. The server was nice enough but we did not see her much.
The place was sparse, to say the least and empty when we arrived but that was not a huge deal, as long as everything else was okay. It wasn’t.
First, the tables should be wiped down and not littered with things like hair, staples (?) and just dirty all over. That is not a good start.
My wife had a bowl of soup and it was hot and tasty. She followed that up with a lamb Shwarma. It was overcooked and seemed as if it was cooked earlier in the day and then reheated.
I had the Al-​Rayan Combo which was actually now bad looking. It was a full plate and presented as well as I would expect. The food on the plate, however was overcooked and dry. The chicken was the best tasting meat on the dish. Again like it was reheated. I have no doubt it was tasty when it was first made and that would have been all they needed to do. Considering how long it took to get he food out, there was time to cook it from scratch.
Overall, the food was fair and the service was a bit less than expected. I am not sure if I would come back.

On one of the walls above the counter at Al Rayan, there’s a green, cardboard side of a box that’s been sort of wedged into place. It’s got some Arabic text on it, a few white buildings, and in English, the words «A blessed chicken, thru’n’thru.»
I’m not entirely sure what was in the original box, but the text could have been about my lunch order.
I ordered the #1 under «Other Plates» on the menu. It’s a big plate of seasoned long-​grain rice served with tender, grilled chicken and vegetables. The chicken wasn’t super spicy, but it had a little kick to it. It wasn’t anything my glass of water (served cold, but without ice) couldn’t handle. It came with a salad and basket of warm pita bread.
Al Rayan is located on Cleveland, in a section of Midtown that’s generally considered «Crosstown». Despite living down the street from the restaurant for almost a year, I had never been inside. It’s a fairly small place, but it’s colorful and inviting. At the table next to mine, a group of people were laughing having a super animated conversation that was half in English about someone mailing a package. They had a huge communal plate of food in the center of their table that seemed to have a little bit of everything on it.
The staff is friendly, and they seemed to know a lot of the people that came in to the restaurant to pick up take out orders by name. Al Rayan’s menu has a lot of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean staples, like falafel, shawarma and kabobs. They’ve got a few special plates, some sandwiches and daily meat specials. The food is Hallal, and most of the things on the menu are less than $ 10.

Saturday, when the sky was grey, the air was biting and the icy streets were treacherous, we drove along a woeful section of Cleveland just north of Poplar to get to Al-​Rayan.
And there we found the remedy to all the unpleasantness listed above. It’s called selta — or salta, depending on which menu you’re reading. The robust stew, which Al-​Rayan owner Hindi Nahwi makes with lamb and potatoes, is a traditional dish of Yemen, and arrives bubbling in a black clay pot. Combine it with a cup of the hot Arabic sweet tea, steeped in cardamom and cloves, and you’ve set a standard for winter comfort food.
Or, if you’re not a meat-​eater, have the lentil soup, which arrives in a clay pot as the selta does, and looks like a mini-​pool of bubbling lava. Nahwi blends vermicelli noodles with the lentil broth; you add the hot sauce. Two versions are offered, a red and a green chile. The green chile is perfectly balanced with garlic, tomato and parsley.
Then move on to some classic Middle Eastern and East African dishes. Nahwi’s roots are in Yemen and Ethiopia, but she grew up in Saudi Arabia. She works with her two friends — one from Iraq and one from Mexico — and the three women clearly know their way around the stove, the kitchen and the market.
We ordered the Al-​Rayan plate, which included a dense, spicy kufta, or sausage; shish kabob, marinated roasted lamb served off the skewer; and falafel, crisp golden chickpea croquettes; along with rice seasoned with black peppercorns and stewed vegetables.
The dining room is simple, with walls of painted cement block, and over the Arabic TV in the background, we heard pots banging, oil sizzling and the blender churning. It took a while for the hot plates to come out; in the meantime, we had the rice-​stuffed grape leaves, which were, as our menu promised, «shiny in olive oil.» And the salad of chopped vegetables — lettuce, radish, cucumber and tomato peppered with oregano. And hummus and tahini, served with fresh-​tasting and puffy hot pita.
We saw the selta go by, sizzling dramatically, while we were waiting for our main dishes. When we asked what it was, Nahwi sent us a sample. A striking presence in a brilliant silk head scarf, her eyes defined with kohl, Nawhi goes back and forth between the stove and the tables, checking with diners to see how they liked their food.
At lunch on a weekday, we tried the buffet, which is set up in chafing trays on the counter — rice; a pleasing vegetable dish with stewed green pepper, celery, okra and onion; tandoori-​style chicken; and a simple but tasty oven-​baked fish — which Nahwi identified as cod — served whole. Also, there was spaghetti. Yes, spaghetti.
The pita sandwiches — shawarma, shish kabob, falafel — are served with tahini and hummus, lettuce and tomato. They’re a genuine bargain at $ 4.
Jennifer Biggs — Print review = 2 out of 4 stars

The service is great, but it’s a true Mom and Pop place so it’s not always consistent. But The food is awesome. Try the shawarma beef or anything lamb. The chicken is hit or miss. The first five times I went I loved it but once the chicken was a bit under spiced. If you like Turkish coffee (like espresso with spices) then they have some you should try. The hummus is mediocre. And the Arabic tv can get annoying when all they show is soccer. One of my fav places in Memphis.

Excellent food. Modest setting for a meal, but great service. Try the «Al Rayan,» a sampler of much good stuff. Grape leaves excellent.

Great little Lebanese restaurant with fabulous hummus, falafel, and tabouleh. The stuffed grape leaves are great. They also have the traditional shaved meat entrees if you are in meat mood. It’s not as cheap as it was when it was called Boogie’s Bistro but still affordable for a broke college kid. It’s a bit of a hole in the wall but else should you expect from Cleveland Avenue. Great place to people watch!